ViggoG,
My friend, I agree whole-heartedly. As a former combat infantryman, son of a combat infantryman and father of a combat infantryman, I believe very strongly in respect for our fallen, comrades and foes alike.
The poem from the slaughter in Flanders comes to mind, "Had we not met at some contested barricade..." was it Rupert Brooke? Robert Graves? (I am certain some Forum member will gently correct me on this as my poetry memory has given me an error message.)
In any event, Monday is American Memorial Day. It dates from just after the War Between the States, 1861-1865.
Contrary to contemporary American politically correct mythology, Memorial Day is not an occasion to have a neighborhood cookout and softball game on an off Monday, when the neighbors can, after loads of light beer and margaritas, sit around the fire holding hands and singing Kumbahya, while trying to attract or hit on someone else's partner of the occasion.
It is also not an occasion to wax long and philosophically about the "yet to be achieved goals of a diverse society" or similar such jackassery de jour.
Quite the contrary, it is a time to pause and honor those who had more gumption, more grit and more back bone. The time is to honor those who once, or repeatedly faced unspeakable horror and gruesome death, simply because they felt it was their duty.
Duty is not a word often used conversationally today. It seems to have been replaced with terms like "inclusiveness", whatever that might mean.
As you no doubt know, my friend, the reason for Memorial Day is to honor those who have paid the ultimate price and given their last drop of devotion so that reasoned dissent and argumentive discourse may flourish in the market place of ideas. Their duty has been done; their blood has not been in vain.
Today, more of humanity is free than in any time in man's sorry history. We very unselfishly shed American blood and spent American treasure by the billions to free 25 million people from the worst mass murderer in human history.
More people are living free and above the subsistence level than at in any time in the history of life on this planet. You can thank American G.I.s for that; no one else was involved until the heavy lifting was completed.
It now seems that every other shanty in every third world cesspool of a country (or tribe with a flag)has Bobbi Batista in the living room explaining current events from the Ted and Hanoi Jane perspective. Progress carries a high price!
No body ever said liberty was pretty. It is, however, an imperative for human survival.
None of this, for better or worse, could have happened without the selfless bravery and heroism of young Americans. They went from Bunker Hill (actually Breed's Hill)to Yorktown to the wholesale American slaughter of 1861-1865, to San Juan and on to Flanders, and to Omaha Beach (Thanks dad!)then to Inchon, to Hue, and now to Baghdad. They were willing to bear the awesome burden of ensuring that freedom would be their children's birthright. And many, many of them were lost in the pain and horror process that is Battlefield Violence, Chapter 1, Combat. I am absolutely certain I put into body bags better men than many who now sit in the House and Senate chambers.
I often wonder if the beneficiaries of this gift, purchased in blood and death, are aware of the value of what they seem to take for granted. I doubt I'll ever know.
So, on Monday, when your significant other absolutely *has* to hit Walmart for the special Memorial Day savings or you are running late to get to the barbeque or volleyball game, please, in memory of those who shed their blood for your right to pretty well do as little or as much as you wish for your fellow man, stop, or at least pause a second, and remember that were it not for those magnificent young men and women, your social calendar would be much less crowded; your belly and bank account much emptier.
And you probably would not be permitted to own a Luger unless it had be TACFOLEYIZED.
Tom A.
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